Spring arrives in Korca

Hello! We hope you are doing well, and that in your part of the world it is starting to feel and look more like spring. We are hoping at some point spring will come, but as I'm writing this, it is snowing outside. February was an exciting month! Since our Tuesday Biblestudy students have been coming consistently from the beginning, we decided to do something fun and special for them. There is a ski slope only 45 minutes from Korce and the owner is good friends with Freeman, so we took everyone skiing. For a full day of skiing and lunch it cost only $7 per person. We all felt closer as a group after this trip. It was such a fun time playing and eating together. One of the boys even came and told us that he couldn't believe it because he had actually been praying to go skiing. For Valentines our Church hosted a party for couples in our church and couples who lived near the church. That weekend we got almost two feet of snow and temperatures were in the teens. That didn't stop the party though and several new couples even came! While some don't care much for walking around in 2 feet of snow, our dog loved it! The snow is one of her favorite things. We had fun playing in the snow with her. Then my sister came to visit for two weeks and this was the best part of the month! Thankfully the snow here started to melt before she arrived. Despite having about 5 changes to her flights due to a snow storm in Texas, she did finally arrive 3 days later than planned. After a joyful reunion she gave us two bags full of gifts from various people, which was very exciting for us! (Thank you very much!!) We are now stocked on cheez-its and chili powder for at least half the year. She also brought a soundboard for our church which was from our American teammate who moved back to the states. Then we hit the ground running. She taught at our Tuesday Bible study group, at our youth group, and also at our Sunday morning church service. She was such a huge blessing and encouragement to everyone. We spent some time with our new youth leader Sara, and Leanne was able to share about her experience as a former youth leader. Her experiences and wisdom were encouraging and inciteful for Sara. On the day that we met with Sara, we met a shop owner next to the cafe. He was nice and curious as to why we were in Korca. He bought us coffee and we talked with him for about an hour and a half. He told us he had a son and daughter and we invited them to our youth group. They were a little hesitant, but in the end they came to youth, and have now come for the past 3 weeks! All because my sister looked in a shop. We are now in the middle of the soccer tournament our church student group joined. The going has been a little rough and we haven't won any games. The 5 other teams we play against have been playing together for a few years. Hopefully the team will learn from this experience and the next tournament will be a little bit better. We have begun to plan for a few different activities for the summer. At the end of June we are having a week-long English camp for teens and young adults. Through this we are hoping to reach more young people and get them plugged into our Bible study groups. Also Freeman and I are planning to visit the U.S. in May. We hope to see and meet with as many of you as possible. We will be in the states for about six weeks. We will keep you updated on where we will be as time gets closer.